Faux Tales’ otherworldly, cinematic soundscapes, adopt a more longform approach in his upcoming album, Reflections. The writing process, which spanned a year and a half, was patient, considered and allowed the music to breathe. Influenced by experimental electronic music from Jon Hopkins, Rival Consoles, Max Cooper, and Clark, the album maintains the aesthetic of previous Faux Tales releases but features less tangible melodic content. Instead, the music builds momentum by assembling elements until each track takes on a larger-than-life quality. Each piece uniquely ascends to great heights, resides at its climax, then contracts before transitioning into the album’s next voyage. Reflections opens with a piano motif and emotive sub-bass, hallmarks of the Faux Tales sound. Flickers of reversed foley and percussive elements create a sense of zero gravity, while a resonant synth line soars above the piano and bass. The track gradually builds until the first rhythmic bass synth line is introduced, a recurring theme throughout the album. With stunning peaks, deep dimensional troughs, and dream-like transitions between tracks, the album provides a forty-minute celestial auditory experience. “Reflections was the first album where I intentionally conceived the musical starting points away from the computer,” says Faux Tales. “I preferred to create loops and skeletal song ideas live in the studio using hardware synthesisers and other gear. Once I had enough material, I began to build upon these ideas, forming song arrangements and adding layers with synthesisers and esoteric sound generators and acoustic instruments. This approach allowed for unique, evolving sounds and occasional happy accidents and imperfections, which further inspired me and gave the constant movement and humanistic groove.”